


fire engine red

by maketea



Series: so many pines u could make a forest [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Cuddling, F/M, Mutual Pining, pre-reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29010873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maketea/pseuds/maketea
Summary: "you'd better not look at me like that," she said."why?""because you'll make me do something that superhero partners shouldn't do."
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: so many pines u could make a forest [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2118306
Comments: 24
Kudos: 197





	fire engine red

They couldn’t pretend this was normal even if they tried, because although friends cuddled — as Ladybug had asserted last patrol —  _ they _ didn’t cuddle. Chat Noir may not have been the most adept at picking up social cues, but he wasn’t an idiot. On this rooftop in the middle of the night was a boy and a girl entangled, alone, and that certainly did not sound platonic to him.

The way she ran her fingers up and down the back of his hand didn't do much to convince him, either, but at least, with her facing away, he knew she hadn't fallen asleep.

“Look,” she said softly, a little hesitantly, half glancing behind her, and he knew she was making sure he hadn’t fallen asleep either. She pointed across the rooftop, out onto the pavement. “Look at that kitty.”

But Ladybug was lying in his arms, a line of soft, warm, pretty girl blocking his view of the street below.

So he drew her closer. Pressed his cheek against hers to look over her shoulder and, yes, there was a lonesome tuxedo cat, scurrying around the empty streets. It chased either its own shadow or a mouse they were too high up to make out.

When she smiled, he felt it against the side of his face. "Isn't it cute?" she asked. 

And it was. He loved cats. He could've watched it dart from one shuttered shop to another for hours, but he didn't have that good a view, and frankly he had no problem with what obstructed his line of vision.

He hummed a half-hearted affirmation, then buried his face into her neck.

Superhero partners didn't do this. But superhero partners didn't let superhero partners do this, either.

Though he hadn't done it just to prove that point — Chat Noir could never be so cold. His motive was simple and human — he wanted to feel her skin against his face. The little sliver of skin between tied hair and turtleneck, the part of her even she hadn't seen of herself before, the part of her that he'd watched her rub her fingers against whenever she'd tied her pigtails too tight.

He closed his eyes, ears filling with the sound of her breaths. Had that hitch been there the whole time?

Ladybug turned in his arms, flushed. 

He waited for her to shoot to her feet. That's what she usually did when she coloured like that, fire engine red, as if she couldn't possibly handle that much blood rushing to her cheeks.

Until now, he'd been under the impression she couldn't. But then she turned in his arms, fire engine red, and instead of shooting to her feet, she came  _ closer _ .

Moonlight scattered across the lip gloss on her lower lip. And maybe he shouldn't have been noticing something like that, but she probably shouldn't have licked it in response, either.

"You'd better not look at me like that," she said.

Chat Noir flicked his eyes back up. She was shaking. Or maybe that was just him.

"Why?" he asked, instead of  _ like what? _ because he knew exactly how he'd been looking at her. He knew exactly how much it ached to be looked at like that, because Ladybug had been making him endure it the past few weeks.

"Because," she said, "you'll make me do something that superhero partners shouldn't do."

Chat Noir smiled through the increment of his pulse. He brought his hand up to her chin, and, mindful of his claw, used his thumb to tug her bottom lip. More moonlight streamed down, glossy ripples painting her mouth like speckles of silver watercolour.

Ladybug buried her hands in his hair and pulled him in.

And she did it. She did what superhero partners shouldn't have done.

Chat Noir kissed her right back.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: rosekasa


End file.
